Digging into the bracket to find random notes of interest in this year’s field.

Dance against the one who brought you …

Lon Krueger coached at Illinois for four years, taking the Fighting Illini to the tournament’s second round on three occasions.

This year, he’ll be trying to keep Illinois from advancing past his UNLV team. Kruger’s Rebels are the No. 8 seed in the Southwest region, which isn’t exactly the seed they were hoping for. With an RPI of 26 and non-conference wins against Wisconsin and Kansas State, UNLV figured to be in the 5-6-7 range, well clear of the dreaded 8/9 game, where a win means a next-round matchup with a No. 1 seed.

If the Rebels lose to Illinois, the Illini will see another familiar face in their next game. Well, unless Kansas becomes the first No. 1 seed ever to lose an opening-round contest. The Jayhawks are coached by Bill Self, who was the coach at Illinois after Kruger left for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.

Self took the Illini to the Elite Eight, Sweet 16 and second round in his three years with the team. It will take a much better effort for the Illini to get a shot at besting two former coaches in two days, though. They’re just 6-10 since the first week of January and probably should have been in the 10-11 seed range.

Another familiar face

First-year head coach Josh Pastner led his Memphis Tigers to the Conference USA Tournament title, and his reward is a game against the school where he learned to coach.

Pastner was a seldom-used player at Arizona before graduating directly into a coaching role for Lute Olsen. He stayed there until 2008, when he left to join John Calipari’s staff at Memphis. And now his 12th-seeded Tigers will face the fifth-seeded Wildcats. “I think that's cool. That's neat,” Pastner told the AP.

"Arizona, obviously, is my alma mater, but I bleed blue and gray. It all worked out. I wore No. 12 when I was a player at Arizona, and we are the 12th seed going against Arizona."

One of his players had a premonition this might happen.

“I told Coach on the way into the house, ‘You know, I think we're going to get matched up against Arizona the first game.’ We kind of laughed it off,” guard Will Barton told the AP. “But as soon as I saw Arizona pop up as a 5 seed, I said, ‘They're calling Memphis (next),’ and that's what happened.”

Goin’ streaking …

There are two teams tied for the longest run of consecutive first-round victories.

One isn’t too surprising. As a No. 1 seed, Pittsburgh is pretty much a lock to extend its streak to six consecutive opening game wins.

The other school might be a big more surprising—it’s Texas A&M. The Aggies haven’t lost in the first round since they ended a 19-year tournament drought with their trip to the 2006 Tournament. They’ll have a tougher opening game than they’d hoped for, though, as a disappointing No. 7 seed with a game against Florida State.

“Well, that's life,” coach Mark Turgeon told the AP. “I don't feel like the Big 12 got a lot of respect when it came to the seeding. ... We get to go to a great city in Chicago and play a great team in Florida State that's a lot like us. They really like to defend and rebound. It'll be a good matchup for us. We're happy to be in and looking forward to it.”

On a side note …

Here’s a bit of upset logic you won’t find elsewhere—watch out for the double-digit seeds in the Tucson region. That’s where I’ll be covering the first weekend of the tournament for Sporting News, and strange things have a way of happening when I’m around.

In 2008, I was in Tampa, where the double-digit seeds went 4-0 on the opening day—No. 12 Villanova, No. 13 Siena, No. 12 Western Kentucky (remember the Ty Rogers buzzer-beater against Drake?) and No. 13 San Diego all won.

In 2010, I was in San Jose, where No. 13 Murray State beat No. 4 Vanderbilt on a buzzer-beater and No. 11 Washington knocked off No. 6 Marquette. And then in the second round, Washington knocked off the region’s No. 3 seed, New Mexico.

So, to recap, The last two years I’ve been to first-weekend games, double-digit seeds are 7-3 against single-digit seeds, and three of the four Sweet 16 teams have been 11 seeds or higher. This year, it’s No. 12 Utah State vs. No. 5 Kansas State, No. 13 Belmont vs. No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 7 Temple and No. 15 Northern Colorado vs. No. 2 San Diego State.

While the Aztecs probably aren’t in any trouble, just saying, keep an eye on the other games …